How the farm-to-table food movement is gaining momentum in Hong Kong
Farm-to-table – a movement that highlights locally grown, seasonal produce – is nothing new in many parts of the world. For some it’s a lifestyle choice, while others view it as a passing fad. But health-conscious diners in Hong Kong are now starting to transform the local food scene as a slew of restaurants sourcing local and fresh ingredients have popped up in the space-starved city in recent years.
Despite some enormous hurdles – from ensuring ingredients are fresh, to keeping food affordable and often battling a lack of consistency in supply quality – a small number of the city’s chefs are committing themselves to travelling up to local farms and bringing fresh, nutritious and local fare to diners’ plates. They are also telling restaurant-goers the story of locally sourced food in an effort to promote the value, both in terms of health and taste, of food grown within Hong Kong’s borders.
Nestled between village houses in Tsuen Wan, in Hong Kong’s western New Territories, and underneath a glitzy bridge, is Yin Yang Coastal, one of the first ever farm-to-fork private kitchens in Hong Kong. Helmed by celebrity chef Margaret Xu, Yin Yang Coastal is perched along a secluded beach, far away from the hustle and bustle of urban Hong Kong life. This Chinese restaurant, which opened in 2008, sources 80 per cent of its ingredients from a farm in Yuen Long, also in the New Territories.
Getting to the private kitchen isn’t easy. I was sent detailed instructions on how to find this tucked away place in a very quiet and secluded part of the city. But once you walk in, it feels as though you’ve arrived at a close friend’s home for dinner. The smell of fresh ginger lingers in the air as Xu welcomes you with the warmest of smiles from behind her open kitchen. There is fresh ginger laid out on one of the tables, the décor is minimal and there’s a wooden soy milk maker right outside the kitchen.
While many farm-to-table restaurants cite healthy eating as the main reason that spurred their desire to source local ingredients, Xu says it’s not just that. “I think farm-to-table is the way to go because vegetables get jet-lagged. When I started growing my own herbs 20 years ago, I discovered they taste quite different. I’m doing all this farm-to-table stuff not because of health reasons, but because I believe the food tastes better,” she says. “The vegetables and fruits are stronger in taste. For example, dragonfruit: If you buy it from the street, it’s just like water. It does not have a strong citrus taste.”
One of the dishes served at the restaurant is a colourful appetiser sampler from Xu’s Yuen Long farm: home-made tofu set with seawater, green sauce and spring onion pesto, salmon roll with taro, sweet potato cheese set with Japanese seaweed, the local Chinese cucumber, hairy cucumber, blue oyster sauce with home-made tofu and seawater, clams, papaya off the tree, beetroot vinegar, local tiger prawns slightly seared on the outside, and organic dragonfruit salsa. Perhaps the self-taught chef’s most well-known dish is her locally sourced chicken called Yellow Earth Chicken, which she roasts in a terracotta urn.
Xu, who was born and raised in Hong Kong, goes to the Yuen Long farm every two to three weeks to personally pick out produce. As for most farm-to-table chefs, the process of bringing fresh produce from farms can be exhausting. It requires monitoring produce carefully over time and also enduring the legwork of carrying ingredients.
One of the biggest challenges is putting up with seasonal changes, which can sometimes hinder a chef’s hope to ensure the freshest of ingredients end up on the plates of demanding diners. “Typhoons might kill all the produce,” says Xu, “so I’ll work with whatever minimum is there and tell people, ‘Sorry, there has been a typhoon’. But I do preserve a lot of stuff; I make my own sauces.”
Xu, who was inspired to grow her own vegetables after a trip to an organic farm in New Zealand where she was astonished by the freshness of the fruits, says it’s worth the battle. She thoroughly enjoys the process of growing her own vegetables and has learned how to preserve key ingredients over time. “The process of growing my own vegetables came naturally. Someone once called me a DIY freak,” she says.
But those seeking seasonal and locally sourced ingredients don’t necessarily have to venture too far outside the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong’s core urban area for a home-grown meal. Founder and café manager Ivy Chow’s Fresca, along busy Hollywood Road in Central, serves up seasonal ingredients to busy office-goers. This quaint, two-storey café is a small and narrow space, but it has a friendly feel. It’s lined with black-and-white photos of Chow picking up produce from her local farms. A list of seasonal ingredients written out in colourful chalk on a blackboard hangs from the wall. The menu here changes daily based on what’s fresh in Chow’s garden and farm.
Chow came out of retirement about five years ago and set up Fresca after growing her own vegetables in a home garden and cooking for friends. She says that a host of health issues inspired her to cook using locally grown vegetables about seven to eight years ago. She still has her own garden, and also rents farm space in Tai Po, a market town in the New Territories. She estimates she has a total of two acres (0.8 hectares) of land, but admits that as the business has grown, she’s found it increasingly difficult to ensure most ingredients were locally sourced.
“Previously, I was in the corporate world, regional HR. I had never done anything retail in my life. I was naive and thought ‘How difficult could it be, right? Just cook at home.’ But it’s a steep learning curve. Cooking for ten to 20 people is different than cooking for 200 people,” she says.
Almost every morning, Chow heads up to her farm in Tai Po and plucks vegetables and fruits to bring to Fresca. At times, she wakes up as early as five in the morning to spend more time at the farm. She says it’s worth the daily trip, as she wants her food to be fresh, customers to feel that they are getting a home-cooked meal, and to be able to ensure her menu is ever-changing
“Right now it’s a pretty good season for tomatoes, root vegetables such as turnips, as well as corn, papaya trees, banana trees and a lot of herbs,” says Chow. “One of the ingredients I got this morning was lemons. A locally grown lemon is very big but the peel is very fragrant. I used it to make salad dressing.”
The menu varies according to what Chow grows in the garden and what’s seasonable. It also brings together different regional influences. Each of the seven staff members – who hail from various countries – contributes to the cooking, which means flavours from, for example, Thailand and Canada, are part of the menu.
“We want to be creative. Usually there’s one chef, but for us, we all make different things. We come from different backgrounds and genders, so when we mix, the result is quite different,” says Chow.
For most travellers, it may be hard to envision vast farms in the notorious concrete jungle that is Hong Kong. It’s certainly not a place like New Zealand, which immediately conjures up images of green land dotted with sheep, cows and rows of grapevines. But Hong Kong
does have considerable farm space on Lantau Island and in the New Territories. In the March 2019 issue of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific, we visited a dragonfruit farm just 1.5km from the Chinese border.
French chef Renaud Marin, formerly of Cochin Delicatessen and Upper Modern Bistro, now leads the sustainability initiatives at Rosewood Hong Kong and sources ingredients for all F&B outlets. Marin has been visiting farms in Lantau and the New Territories in an effort to bring fresh, seasonal ingredients to his guests’ plates. The chef, who has been growing vegetables such as radishes, spring onions and potatoes, says he is surprised by the amount of ingredients he can source from Hong Kong, and doesn’t understand why he didn’t consider it before. He grows his vegetables on an “absolutely gorgeous” square of land on Cheung Chau, an island 10km southwest of Hong Kong Island accessible by public ferry.
A core element of farm-to-table is cultivating close relationships with local farmers and fishermen. Marin believes that visiting local farms once or twice a week and working with fisherman has helped him understand local ingredients better.
“About two to three times a week, fishermen come to our restaurants and we buy the new catch from them. The locals know where the water is not polluted, they know what to catch, and there’s more respect for the environment,” he says.
Last month, Rosewood opened Asaya Kitchen, a health-focused restaurant helmed by Marin that aims to serve 60 per cent locally sourced ingredients, making Mediterranean- and Japanese-inspired cuisine. Most of the ingredients are sourced from local farmers. One of the signature lunch items is grilled snapper, freshly caught from Hong Kong waters and served with peppers grown on a local organic farm.
Marin is optimistic that more and more restaurants will see the potential of farm-to-table dining. “People tend to overlook what Hong Kong has to offer,” he says, “but the idea and vision towards local products is changing”.
